Recently states have been enacting gun laws from the unstable rate in crime, and misuse of weaponry. Top notch officials are only seeing the misuse in guns, and have been prohibiting rights given within the Constitution. However, why put gun control in place if it is not beneficial to anyone, except for the ones who are actually causing the trouble? Gun control takes away freedom from those who actually abide by laws, and gives criminals another way to receive and misuse guns. Gun control is just making violence and negativity within the state worse, so why enforce such a law, if it’s been proven to be uncooperative with the final goal? If this “solution” is not profitable to the U.S. or states themselves, it’s obvious this law should not be enforced.

      Gun violence in America has steadily increased. Everyday guns are used to commit at least 3,000 crimes, kill over 80 people, and injure almost 400. At this rate, our population of 316 million would be dead within the next 3,160 years. Just because an average of 100,000 citizens die from gun violence in a year. But just why is this occurring...? Of course, it’s because criminals are still accessing guns illegally, states are beginning to enforce gun control laws, background checks are not being put into place, and most of all people are finding ways to deal ammunition illegally. In fact “approximately 12,000 annual gun murders and 66,000 non-fatal shootings are committed by people who have no legal right to a gun” (Illegal Gun Trafficking Arms Criminals & Youth).

However, this is not a sign the government should use to completely ban guns from everyone, especially through the use of Gun Control.

Americas gun violence has increased. However, in all honesty it is not because more people have access to guns. It’s because their rights are being taken away. By completely banning guns from citizens, you are not only abolishing the rights clearly given to them, but their recreation, and “right to bear arms” as well. Not all citizens are bad. For example, some people use guns for recreation, such as hunting, gun safety classes, and self defense training classes. According to a study in 2011, 18.1% of gun users, use their guns for hunting. According to this source, 52% of these gun users go target shooting, and 22% attend shooting ranges. This goes to show, that guns cannot be stereotyped, because they are used for other things as well,such as what has been stated. By enforcing gun control laws, you are putting guns in the hands of the less abiding citizens, and taking away guns from the hands of the law abiding. In fact, after Massachusetts put ban laws, and  stricter gun control  laws in place in 1998. Statistics show from 1998 to 2011, the murder rate almost doubled. (The Baltimore Sun). Which goes to prove criminals still found a way to access guns, and gun control was ineffective.

Conversely, some people believe gun control is effective. According to a study on USA Today, gun control helped lower violence rates. In fact researchers of Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard School of Public Health held this study and found that states who enforced strict gun laws, had a mortality rate 42% lower than states without gun laws. As well as the homicide and suicide rates being 37-40% lower too. During this study it was found the death rate was 5 times higher in states without laws as well (Yamiche Alcindor, USA TODAY “Study: States with more gun laws have less gun violence). Whereas statistics on gun violence within America have shown that where gun control is effective, it is non effective on criminals, and everyone causing our rates to increase. However, how can you prove gun control is effective, when murders are occurring and become more frequent? As well as the obvious statement of guns ending up in the hands of the wrong people.

     Regardless of what people think, statistics are what we need to rely on. As you know, gun control was originally put into place to reduce the amount of crime. However, if that’s so, why are criminals still finding access to guns? After many studies and checks on legal gun dealers, results showed, 57% of guns owned by legal dealers, usually end up in the hands of criminals. “In 2005, the ATF examined 3,083 gun dealers and found 12,274 “missing” firearms.” (Where do crime guns come from?). All that were illegally given away, or sold. Overall, criminals are stealing handguns from the legal, as well as having connections with legal dealers. They are using people with clean records to buy guns for them, and attending gun shows where background checks are not mandatory. However, the point here is, gun control forces people to do this. If everyone was allowed their right “to bear arms” no one would have to do things illegally.

Finally, when putting gun laws into place as I mentioned before you take away citizens freedom. Guns in most cases were originally meant to be used for self defense, so by abolishing a citizens “ right to bear arms” you give only government officials or U.S. defense teams the right to defend themselves. Some people say “that’s what police are for”, however statistics show for some police stations such as Denver, police are not always present when you need them. “It took 15.75 minutes to respond to high priority 911 calls through the first 10 months of this year. In the first 10 months of last year, the average response time was 14.03 minutes, the department data shows.” (Denver Police Taking Longer to Respond to Calls, New Data Shows) Almost two minutes in just a year.

According to El Paso Times, it once took officers six hours to respond to a call. At this point, if they could’ve saved someones life, the person or people would have been deceased by the time officers arrived. El Paso Times also states “In 2007, police were able to respond to even the lowest priority calls in an average of less than 22 minutes. Now it takes police an average of more than an hour to get to those calls, the report shows.” (Response Time Increases, Police Chief Says) So as you can see, police and other rescue teams are not always reliable. According to both sources, they are short on staff which is the cause of such mess, but based on current government status, budget crisis will only be fixed through time. So once again, why put gun control in place if your safety is not always guaranteed?

Speaking about this, others have found in some places Police have made an effort to improve their status. Apparently, New York Police Department was able to respond to crimes approximately three minutes faster than the previous year. Although short of staff, time decreased in many ways. According to New York Times, “department's average reported response time for crimes in progress dropped to 7.2 minutes from 10.1 minutes the previous fiscal year” (Response Time To Police Calls Is 29% Faster). Which is a 29% decrease. According to this source, the New York Police Department also had a 20% decrease on response times to burglary, sexual assault, robberies, and gunfire. However, this is one state of out of many. Whereas, people from other states complain police are not reputable to their safety.

Based on this evaluation of gun control, you now have enough to say “yes, gun control is ineffective”. Our state does not benefit from this law, nor do us U.S. citizens. Gun Control is not necessary. It takes away the right of American people, and has been proven irrelevant. So just why are we wasting our time on things that are not helping in the way they should? 

                                          Works Cited
"Fact Sheet: Illegal Gun Trafficking Arms Criminals & Youth." Gun Victims Action Council RSS. National Gun Victims Action Council, 2012-2013. Web. 25 Oct. 2014.
"Gun Control Doesn't Work." Baltimore Sun. N.p., 21 Feb. 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
Alcindor, Yamiche. "Study: States with More Gun Laws Have Less Gun Violence." USA Today. Gannett, 07 Mar. 2013. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.
Beckett, Lois. "The Connection Between Mental Illness and Gun Violence."Pacific Standard. Miller-McCune Center for Research, 2014. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.
Cybercast News Service. "U.S. Gun Owners Outnumbered Hunters by 5 to 1 in 2011." CNS News. N.p., 1998-2014. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.
Granderson, LZ, and The Opinions Expressed in This Commentary Are Solely Those of LZ Granderson. "Gun Control Is Not the Answer."CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Sept. 2013. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.
NBCNews.com. "Just the Facts: Gun Violence in America." NBC News. N.p., Jan. 2013. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.
Rashbaum, William K. "Response Time To Police Calls Is 29% Faster." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 Sept. 2002. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.
Something In the Universe. "Statistics on Gun Trafficking & Private Sales."Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence RSS. Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, 2012. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
The Denver Post. "Denver Police Taking Longer to Respond to 911 Calls, New Data Shows." - The Denver Post. N.p., 2014. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.
The El Paso Times. "Response Time Increases, Police Chief Says." El Paso Times.com. N.p., 2014. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.